Month: September 2018

Useful Material on Interpreting Myths

The history of the interpretation of myth is about as varied as myth itself.  As we delve into Salley Vickers’ Where Three Roads Meet you may want to learn more about how myth was interpreted.  After all, one of the two voices in Where Three Roads Meet is Sigmund Freud, who famously interpreted the myth of Oedipus as being about childhood sexual desires, frustrations, and jealousies.

This first link provides a brilliant and succinct overview of how myth has been interpreted in each period from ancient Greece down to the present.  It includes everyone from Xenophanes of Colophon, Anaxagoras, Socrates and Plato, to Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Where the first link organizes various approaches to myth chronologically from oldest to more recent, this link connects to a page that divides interpretations up according to guiding principles (i.e. “as disguised history”; “as pre-scientific explanation” etc).

 

More Reviews for “Where Three Roads Meet”

Scholars,

Here are three sources that may help you with “Where Three Roads Meet”.

The first is a review written by Salley Vickers for The Guardian.  You can read it by clicking here.  In addition to summarizing the story of Oedipus, Vickers’ critiques Freud’s theory by suggesting that Freud emphasizes the story of the child who kills his father and beds his mother, while failing to recognize the equally important story of the parents who disastrously fail to murder their child.

This second source is from Liz Gloyn’s excellent blog, Classically Inclined.  You can read her insightful, short post here.

The third source I’ve selected is a literary analysis of the role of Tireseas, the seer, in the novel.  It’s a bit longer and denser than the other two pieces, but for those of you with time on your hands, you can read it here.

 

Extra Sources for “Where Three Roads Meet”

Salley Vickers
Salley Vickers

In preparation for reading / discussing Salley Vickers’ Where Three Roads Meet, some of you may wish to listen to or read Oedipus the King.  The 1986 BBC adaptation is available, streaming, through NOVA’s library.  Search for it in  Films on Demand.  This link should get you there but you may have to logon using your NOVA ID and password to view the movie.

You can also listen to the play.  Audible has an excellent full-cast production of the play as translated by Nicholas Rudall, but if you don’t have an audible account you may wish to listen to this version on Youtube:

Sophocles.  Oedipus Rex.  Youtube, 28 September 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WOQT7qD7w

Some of you may prefer to read the play.  There are numerous translations available, but here is at least one online, verse translation.

Sophocles.  Oedipus the King.  Translated by Ian Johnston, 2014, http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/sophocles/oedipusthekinghtml.html. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

You may also want to read this interview with Salley Vickers:

Feay, Suzi.  “Interview: Author Salley Vickers explains why Freud got it all wrong about Oedipus.” Independent,  4 Nov. 2007, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/interview-author-salley-vickers-explains-why-freud-got-it-all-wrong-about-oedipus-398566.html. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gilgamesh

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode, “Darmok,” Captain Picard, played by the fabulous Patrick Stewart, summarizes The Epic of Gilgamesh for an alien commander.  In Picard’s account, the focus is not on Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality, but rather on the grief Gilgamesh experiences at the loss of his friend, Enkidu.  Gilgamesh’s grief foreshadows Picard’s grief when his alien friend dies.  You can see Patrick Stewart telling the story here:

“Epic of Gilgamesh in two minutes by Patrick Stewart.” Youtube, uploaded by paul f, 9 Dec. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCmwClf0F8g.

The Twelve Olympians and Some (Other) Women

In Circe we encounter both Titans and Olympians, as well as many stories related to these gods. Many of the gods we may already know; many of the stories we may have heard; some of the gods and some of the stories may be new to us. As a primer or refresher on the Olympian key players, I have found a great little text titled  The Twelve Olympians.

A large number of women in Greek mythology exist, but we usually only hear or discuss a few; here is a fairly comprehensive list of all of them. It’s an extensive list and well worth spending some time digging through; it’s no small task. We will discuss the key ones related to Circe in class, but there are so many more than we generally realize.

 

Excerpt from Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”.

Simone_de_Beauvoir2Scholars,

The following excerpt from de Beauvoir’s classic, The Second Sex, provides a concise introduction to the construction of woman as Other.  This text is invaluable in understanding structuralism, and will be referenced by both Rachel and myself as we end our discussion of Gilgamesh and begin our discussion of Circe.

de Beauvoir, Simone.  From Second Sex.  Science Fiction: Stories and Contexts, edited by Heather Masri, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009, pp. 179-185.

Simone de Beauvoir Second Sex

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